Restoring Integrity in our Funeral Industry
Colorado is the only state that doesn’t require licensure of funeral home practitioners; horrific stories lead to bill to regulate industry.
October 27, 2023, 189 bodies were removed from Penrose, Colorado Funeral Home, Return to Nature. February of 2018 the FBI raided Sunset Mesa Funeral home in Montrose Colorado. This would be the catalyst to spark an extensive five year investigation that discovered the body parts of over 500 victims were sold illegally. In 2020, Lake County Coroner Shannon Kent, was barred from practicing at six funeral homes he owned due to blatant misconduct involving the storage of bodies. The list goes on…
We weren’t the first to report on horrors of Penrose and Sunset Mesa and the 19 other tragic cases of recent funeral home malpractice, and we certainly won’t be the last. The frequency and intensity that these atrocities are occurring at pose a challenging question, what is causing these crimes and why does it keep happening in Colorado?
The answer is simple, Colorado is one out of 50 and unfortunately, in more than one way. Behind the image of beautiful snow capped peaks, vast rolling plains, and deep blue glacier lakes exists an ugly problem of unregulated funeral homes. Government has few reasons to regulate the market, handling our dead is one of those reasons.
The regulations that Colorado law requires of Mortuaries and Crematories is minimal. In fact, most regulatory requirements fall into the same category that all Colorado businesses must follow. Funeral Homes must follow the state law in accordance to discrimination of race, creed, color etc…(C.R.S 12-135-301) , they must register as funeral home (C.R.S 12-135-303), they must engage in ethical business practices, and they must keep a standard to recording and keeping of records (C.R.S 12-135-305).
Even the most stringent regulation only requires that “non-authorized” individuals be prohibited from visiting the preparation room or crematory during the time that the body is being prepared for cremation or final disposition (C.R.S. 12-135-301). The irony is that the person preparing the body in the preparation room could have been hired the day prior and with no experience in mortuary science. In fact, Colorado law doesn’t even prohibit individuals who have been charged with crimes against a corpse to practice in a mortuary.
The lack of regulations in the Colorado mortuary business allow for these disgusting acts to take place. Increased regulations that forbid previous offenders of crimes against a corpse from practicing in a funeral home, increased educational/apprenticeship requirements, and higher standards for handling a corpse should be welcomed into law. These tragic crimes are highly preventable but change to regulatory statute needs to occur first.
There is no greater tragedy than the loss of a loved one. Part of the solace that we can find in such a loss is knowing that their earthly vessel is well taken care of. There are not many areas in which I would ever advocate for greater regulation. However, I will always advocate to ensure that the sacred act of caring for our dead is not subject to the whims of a neglectful business environment that leads to concrete in our urns instead of ashes.
ICYMI: I announced my new bill, SB24-173, last week that will license funeral home operators. You can watch the full press conference below and keep an eye out for future newsletters that detail this bill and others I have run that curtail the bad practices in Colorado’s funeral home industry.
We have a private graveyard on our property and have absolutely NO intention of involving a “funeral home” in our celebrations of life. That is a “business” we feel no need to frequent. Thank you Matt for proposing better regulations. Not everyone will have the opportunity that we have.